After starting my 200-level “Shakespeare in Context” students on a few sonnets, I assigned Twelfth Night (most had never read a Shakespeare comedy before) and Othello (they loved Iago), and then asked them to sample four different plays — The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, and Jonson’s…
Similar:Shakespeare portrait said to be only one made in his lifetime on sale for £10m A portrait said to be the only signed …ArtOn this date in 1999 I first added a date to the list of web links I had been curating. (T…On this date in 1999, I first dated an e…CybercultureFacebook Should Pay…
In September, 2003, I was blogging about What the NY Times called the “campus fad” of Internet plagiarism. “What Does a Professor Do All Day?” (Clearly we are wasting our time whenever we are not standing in front of a classroom.) “Graphic Artist Carefully Assigns Ethnicities To Anthropomorphic Recyclables“ Leni Riefenstahl Dies (although she distanced…
Similar:Cause and Effect (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 18) time loop. Ka-boom. The En…Rewatching ST:TNG A smart, charac…AestheticsMe loving my birthday truck, c. 1971. I adored this truck, and spellin…DesignPrototypes in Technical Writing: What are They?Many a high school student has muddled t…AcademiaSuch pictures fill my weekday world at fiveYour pictures fill my weekday…
In a writing-intensive class, students need to write extensively to the point that the teacher cannot possibly grade all of it. — Edutopia via NCTE Good advice from an article by Kara Douma, reprinted by NCTE. I need to hear that. The referees don’t score every practice. The coaches don’t give you feedback after…
Similar:The hidden billion-dollar cost of repeated police misconductThe story notes that when police departm…CultureWashington Post Cartoonist Who Quit Over Bezos Cartoon Wins Pulitzer PrizeFormer Washington Post cartoonist Ann Te…CultureHappy Father’s Day One of my favorite pictures of my fa…Current_EventsMy #Blender3D set design for a Zoom-based production of Rossum's Universal Robots, which I…I’ve loved this 1920s…
What would you do? Today I wrote 192 lines of ChoiceScript code to address this journalism lesson. Similar:What is this? I do not like this change, @duolingo (For some reason I can’t practice to re…What is this? I do not like this change,…BusinessWhere is the tipping point?What if universities stopped buying acad…AcademiaThe Zombie Argument that…
The very useful “media bias chart” is one of several useful ways to classify sources of journalism. While individual items published by any of these sources can vary considerably from the general location depicted in this chart, the takeaway message is that journalism can still be valid and useful even if it has a slant,…
Shortly after my online AmLit survey began, I received two obviously AI-generated submissions. The responses did not address the prompt, there was no textual annotation and brainstorming assignment that was supposed to lead up to the written response, and the student did not take me up on my offer to meet to discuss how the…
In October, 2002, I was blogging about The stupidity of explosions in space movies The Chronicle of Higher Education rescues the briefly defunct Arts & Letters Daily The superiority complex An anti-telemarketing script An “I Love Lucy: bible study Why whitespace matters when creating a sign The coming air age of 1955 (as envisioned in…
Here’s to you, grim-faced photojournalist who waited just long enough to make sure 20-year-old me learned an important lesson, before saving me from the consequences of my own poor planning. Every day on the job, I’m trying to pay it forward. In 1989, I was an intern in a crowd of media professionals covering…
“That was easy!” Today three different students made some variation of that statement. In that class, we are gearing up to write a research paper. I have broken the project up into multiple tasks, that I can grade quickly and generously. Today’s assignment asks students to submit a paragraph that argues the…
Similar:Play-Doh was Originally Wallpaper CleanerThe story of Play-Doh began when Kutol, …BusinessTake my feedback if you want to pass.I won’t be so assertive in the first wee…AcademiaPreparing for some serious nerd time with the family this summerSet phasers to “nerd”! This summer I’ll…CultureEmily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap PoetryThere’s never enough time to cover Emily…CultureHow reading fiction…
In September, 2002, I was blogging about “The Science of Scientific Writing” (1990) from ‘pong’ to ‘pac man’ Michigan Police fall for The Onion satire about terrorist telemarketers “Ebonics” (ebony + phonics) Silly alarmist story about recessive blonde genes A scientist undone by plagiarism Google News (when it was new) Mel Gibson’s plan to film…
In August, 2002, I was blogging about Educational technology spending that doesn’t benefit students; ebook readers that students don’t like; email as a tool in online course (all free at the time, but now behind the Chronicle of Higher Ed’s paywall) A prof spreading bad papers in order to catch plagiarists Expensive goose tracker leads…
Many are wailing that this technology spells “the end of high school English,” meaning those classes where you read some books and then write some pro forma essays that show you sort of read the books, or at least the Spark Notes, or at least took the time to go to Chegg or Course Hero and grab…
Similar:Seton Hill discontinues mask requirement for vaccinated individualsThe pandemic is not over. It’s a blessin…AcademiaMy son showed me #PacificRim.My son showed me #PacificRim. Liked the …CybercultureAnother corner building. Designed and textured. Needs an interior. #blender3d #design #ae…Another corner building. Designed and te…AestheticsLiterature Is Not Data: Against Digital HumanitiesMean technology. Mean, mean technology. …BooksMisleading Publisher Email…
Today I met a class of English majors who love writing, and who expressed concern that AI writers will put them out of a job. Human- and machine-generated prose may one day be indistinguishable. But that does not quell academics’ search for an answer to the question “What makes prose human?” […] “Think about what…
“Journalism is an imperfect human activity done by biased people who have bills to pay and passions that drive them,” said Dennis Jerz, Seton Hill associate professor and advisor of The Setonian. “If you believe that your organization is the only pure organization that exists you are approaching journalism from a perspective that I just…
The worst reaction to Shakespeare’s complicated language, it seems to me, is thinking that it should be hard for an audience to understand. This will only cause Shakespeare shrinkage to expand, creating entire productions that are difficult to understand, not just occasional moments, and alienating audiences who have been disappointed too many times. Shakespeare should never be a…